LA County Assessor Under Fire for Miscalculating Property Taxes

L.A. County supervisors will wrestle today with the prospect of collecting almost $50 million less than they expected in property taxes next year, which could lead to cuts in law enforcement, education and other services.

Assessor John Noguez estimated last year that the county property tax base would grow by almost $18.7 billion for the next fiscal year but revised that figure to $5.1 billion last week, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Property in Los Angeles County was valued at $1.1 trillion last year. Taxes paid on that real estate is the county's largest source of local revenue, helping fund such agencies as the Sheriff's Department, county education office and Fire Department.

Assessor officials are expected to give a presentation to supervisors at their weekly meeting today.

The county has an annual budget of about $23 billion. The supervisors are scheduled to begin considering their budget next week. In the meantime, they're questioning how Noguez's figures could change so drastically.

Noguez "was either dead wrong in December" or "dead wrong in March," Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky told the Los Angeles Times.

In December, Noguez estimated the tax base would drop by about $2.6 billion because of falling home prices. That number burgeoned to about $13.5 billion in his latest report.

"This inexplicably precipitous decline ... is shocking and cannot be accepted without scrutiny and verification," Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said in a statement quoted by The Times.

Yaroslavsky and Ridley-Thomas have written a motion calling for an audit of the assessor's estimate and recommending an examination "to determine whether the assessor's office is appropriately and efficiently administering the county's property assessment."